Animal Nutrient and Ingredient Development

Animal Nutrient and Ingredient Development. Animals are heterotrophs and they require proper nutrients to maintain their growth rate, reproduction rate, immunity, and well-being. There are six major classes of nutrients: water, protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins.

University of Alberta pilot extruder unit

The University of Alberta pilot extruder unit is a new platform technology located at AFDP is the only such single-screw extruder in Western Canada and is scalable for commercial application. This equipment will support the production of new pet foods using procedures that guarantee protection of IP. Furthermore, the technology will support the inclusion of a wide array of functional ingredients following dry and wet fractionation and solvent extraction into pet food, human food, and animal feed. The required basic scientific knowledge will be drawn from the academics at the UA, in particular the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science that serves as the backbone for success of the Program.

Value Added Agriculture

This new program will provide exceptional opportunities to add value to the Agriculture sector in Alberta and Canada. The pilot-scale extruder will be uniquely suited to the pet food and animal feed industries. The program will not only use commodity ingredients but also use new animal protein and crop protein as functional ingredients for food and feed application. The new extruder will thus develop research products for human consumption using tight protocols.

Skilled Personnel

The Animal Nutrition and Ingredient Development Program will be a training center to train new highly-qualified personal for industries that use extruders including the pet food Industry, feed industry, food industry and other value-added agricultural Industries. This new program will incorporate training in areas on; extrusion, nutrition, nutraceuticals, feed additives, and new animal of human health products. AFDP has two trained operators for the extrusion line and the facility works closely with a number of Industry Clients to test new product development or changes in formulation.

International Trade

The Canadian pet food industry is rapidly becoming an exporter of finished agricultural product to international markets. This new development Program will provide platform technologies for the Petfood industry to sustain successful product development and testing. By combining the critical mass into one development program, these industries can continue to operate successfully and development new products for the International